Place TNI under Ministry: Experts

Place TNI under Ministry: Experts

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

Analysts have told a House Commission deliberating a new bill on
the Indonesian Military (TNI) to place the Indonesian Military
(TNI) under the control of the Ministry of Defense in order to
avoid overlapping in policy-making.

Currently, the TNI is directly subordinate to the president,
with the TNI chief treated as being akin to a Cabinet minister,
and therefore entitled to attend Cabinet meetings and meetings
held by the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs.

According to the analysts, this arrangement had created
overlapping in policy-making between TNI headquarters and the
Ministry of Defense.

The drafting of the TNI bill provided an obvious example if
this. The Ministry of Defense had previously prepared a TNI bill
and submitted it to the state secretary. Apparently not
satisfied, TNI headquarters went ahead and drafted its own bill.

"As long as the TNI is not made subordinate to the Ministry of
Defense, there will always be overlapping in the policy-making
process as regards military issues. This impinges on the TNI's
professionalism," Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI) told the House of Representatives' Commission I
on Monday, the first day of hearings on the controversial new TNI
bill.

Also attending the meeting were Indria Samego of the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Kusnanto Anggoro and J.
Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), and Yahya Muhaimin from Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in
Yogyakarta.

The bill, which has aroused widespread opposition from the
public, maintains the military's territorial role, which former
strongman Soeharto used to keep a lid on political life.

It also allows serving military personnel to accept civilian
posts without having to resign from the forces, a common
phenomena during Soeharto's 32 years of authoritarian rule.

The House has pledged to endorse the bill by the end of
September.

Kusnanto, meanwhile, said that the bill should clearly state
that the TNI is a defense instrument that must submit to civilian
authority.

"The TNI bill still has fundamental problems in its overall
conception. It needs more discussion as it is hard to see how it
will be capable of promoting professionalism among TNI
personnel," he said.

Indria, meanwhile, proposed that the position of TNI chief be
scrapped and that the president be given the power to appoint a
Joint Chief of Staff in time of war only.

"The abolition of the post of TNI chief would encourage the
Army, Navy, and Air Force to develop as professional forces,"
Indria said.

Meanwhile, Kristiadi criticized the bill for ignoring the
welfare of soldiers as it contained not a single article about
soldiers' pay and housing.